Chelsea and Radamel Falcao: Applying some logic

When rumours like this hang around, it’s either because there’s some substance to them, or because it’s in the media’s interest to keep publishing the same stories.

In relation to the mutterings and mumblings about Radamel Falcao joining Chelsea in January, the latter seems most likely: the Colombian forward is barely six months into his time with AS Monaco, is in good form in France, and already earns a reported €350,000/week. We can all sneer about Ligue 1, but this story has always seemed incredibly unrealistic.

According to many reports, the crux of the issue between Falcao and Monaco is the threat of new legislation which will eliminate the club’s tax advantage over its rivals in France. Fair enough, but any change to that situation will not be enforced mid-season, hence it would make absolutely no sense for Monaco to part with their best player until the end of the current campaign at the very earliest - the objective for next season is Champions League football, and given that Monaco are already trailing PSG and Lille in the league, finishing in the top-two would look to be beyond them if they were to say goodbye to their top-scorer. Billionaire-owned or not, Monaco are relatively ordinary without Falcao.

Will the Colombian honour all five years of his contract? I doubt it, but that doesn’t mean that he’s set for an immediate transfer - this story has always felt very contrived and false, and really just like another example of rich English clubs being linked to a player for the sake of internet traffic.

We’d all love to see him in England, but don’t get your hopes up - if he craved the platform of the Premier League that much, he would probably already be here. Remember also that Chelsea have supposedly been ‘desperate’ to sign him for a year now, and many papers/websites insisted that a transfer was going to be a virtual certainty last Summer - so why should anybody take the same claims seriously now?